Data is proving to be one strategic asset for modern business. No wonder, 59.5% of business leaders now say that their companies leverage data to drive business innovations. Talking of leveraging data, there are many nice marketing data sources you can use to derive insights ranging from understanding your consumer behavior, spotting market trends, and more.
Let’s delve in deeper and look into some of the best marketing data sources that you can add to your data pipelines to empower your strategic decision-making as a business:
Google Analytics (GA)
Google Analytics (GA) is a free web analytics tool that allows you to track and analyze various aspects of your website performance meaning you can use it to derive insights that can empower strategic decision-making.
You can use GA to track key metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, user engagement, user behavior, demographics, interactions, and more.
You can generate reports and visualizations from the in-built dashboard or you can take it a step further by adding the data into your analytics pipeline. This way you can build your custom business dashboards on top of the Google Analytics data.
Here is a nice guide on using the Google Analytics Data API to get programmatic access to extract your data from the platform.
You can use the insights to discern things like the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, content, and channels. As a business, this is also one data source that can help you understand customer preferences which can come in handy to help you tailor your user experiences, and allocate resources efficiently better.
Social Media Analytics
Social media is another wonderful marketing data source that proves invaluable you can use to augment your decision-making. For starters, social media Platforms like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, and LinkedIn Analytics offer valuable social data on audience engagement, demographics, and content performance.
Beyond the native social media analytics options, you can also use third-party social media analytics tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, Mention, BrandMoran, Brand24, and the like to derive valuable insights from your social media channels.
Well, the native and third-party social media analytic tools help you make sense of social data. You can track engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares), follower growth, click-through rates, impressions, reach, and more.
You can also use the data to understand the sentiment behind social media mentions related to your brand and more.
Gmail Analytics
Gmail remains one of the most useful email marketing tools for all types and sizes of businesses. You can use this as a source for insights into your email campaigns, customer engagement, and audience behavior.
Gmail Analytics will give you metrics on open rates, click-through rates, and conversion tracking. This way, you can tailor your content, optimize send times, and segment your audiences for targeted messaging.
You can optimize your marketing campaigns specifically for Gmail users and assess their effectiveness.
Here is a nice guide on using Gmail analytics to empower your business. Make sure you also tap into productivity hacks to make the most of your Gmail for business experience.
For example, you can set up filters and labels to automatically categorize and organize your emails, set Gmail to dark mode, use Gmail’s search operators to refine your search, enable Keyboard shortcuts, and more.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Data
CRM tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zoho store essential customer information from various touchpoints, including sales, support, and marketing interactions. This enables you to understand customer journeys and make personalized and targeted campaigns that resonate with specific customers.
CRM data empowers strategic decision-making by offering segmentation opportunities plus you can identify high-value customers, predict buying patterns, and optimize marketing efforts. The CRM data can help you as a business to enhance customer satisfaction, and retention, and find opportunities to upsell and cross-sale.
Advertising Platforms
Advertising platforms like social media ad platforms and programmatic ad platforms provide insights crucial for informed strategic decision-making. They collect comprehensive data on consumer behavior, engagement metrics, demographics, and preferences, providing a rich pool of information for marketers.
This way, you gain actionable insights that allow you to refine your targeting, optimize ad spend, and tailor messaging to better resonate with your audience. Leveraging advertising platform data empowers you to make data-driven decisions and enhance the efficiency and efficacy of your marketing efforts.
Market Research Reports
Market research reports from firms like Forrester, Nielsen, or Gartner offer industry-specific data. These reports offer in-depth analyses of market trends, consumer behavior, competitor strategies, and industry developments.
You can utilize this data to understand your market dynamics, identify emerging market trends, and make informed decisions about your product positioning, market segmentation, and competitive analysis.
Leveraging market research reports empowers your organization to make data-driven decisions, mitigate risks, and seize opportunities. This ultimately enhances your competitive edge in the marketplace.
Customer Feedback and Surveys
Customer feedback and surveys are a good way to get direct insights into consumer preferences, satisfaction levels, and pain points. Gathering direct feedback from customers through surveys, feedback forms, or Net Promoter Scores (NPS) provides qualitative insights that help you tailor your products/services and refine your marketing strategies.
The qualitative and quantitative nature of feedback and survey data helps in gauging customer satisfaction, predicting market trends, and ultimately tailoring your strategies to meet evolving consumer needs.
The customer feedback and surveys will empower you to make informed and customer-centric decisions in your marketing endeavors.
Wrapping up
As a business, harnessing data from diverse sources including the right marketing data sources allows you to derive actionable insights to drive your strategic decision-making. It will help you stay competitive in what is a dynamic business landscape keeping in mind that the right data approach is pretty much the foundation for strategic decision-making, operational efficiency, and sustained growth
